Two thousand top student programmers have registered to participate in a hackathon at Santa Monica Place this weekend.

The event kicks off Friday at 9 p.m. and runs through Sunday. It's hosted by HackTech, a partnership between Caltech's and UCLA's networks of hackers and entrepreneurs, which is calling it the biggest student-run hackathon ever.

Party buses are transporting hackers from all over California; East Coast and Midwest engineers will also participate. Attendees are expected from Caltech, UCLA, USC, Stanford, UC Berkeley, the University of Pennsylvania and more than 50 other schools.